It's been a while since I updated you on my quest to lose weight, to become the lean mean investing machine I once was. OK, back then, when I once was I was hardly a mean investing machine. I was fairly lean though.

In both January and February I posted a message here updating you on my progress toward my goal of losing a pound a week. I nearly let March get away without weight loss update.

The news is good. We're 12 weeks into the new year, 2007, and as of this morning I'm slightly ahead of my weight loss goal. As of this morning I'm officially down 14 pounds from the beginning of the year.

In case you can't tell, I'm practically bursting with pride at my accomplishment so far. I'm particularly proud of my newfound ability to pass up dessert. I've always been a sweets hound. I realized, however, that if I were serious about reaching my weight loss goal I would need to have the ability to pass up some (many) of those post-meal gratuitous calories.

I started off by passing on a few bites, or by splitting the portion with someone else. (That's such a cruel practice, by the way, encouraging someone else to indulge in order to cut your own consumption.) Recently I've found I'm able to completely pass it up, even offers to split dessert coming my way. A nice coffee or cappuccino does the trick as replacement.

Just like that, three months into the new year and I've come half way to meeting my weight loss goal of losing 25 pounds. At this rate, by summer I might even be showing a bit of beach muscle. Dream on.